2 killed in fiery crash of small plane on Molokai

Two people died in a fiery plane crash in Maunaloa, Molokai, today, the fourth fatal air incident on or around the island in the last 14 months.

The Cessna 206 propeller plane crashed while en route to the Molokai Airport under unknown circumstances, said Federal Aviation Administrationspokesman Allen Kenitzer.

Molokai Air Traffic Control alerted the Maui Fire Department and local police at 11:15 a.m. that they had lost communication with an aircraft thatwould have been three to four miles west of the airfield when contact was broken.

At 12:12 p.m., firefighters located wreckage of the small private aircraft in a remote location.

“We were able to locate the wreckage in a difficult-to-reach brush area, three to four miles west of the airport just east of the FAA navigational aid —the land-based radio beacon that pilots use to navigate between the islands,” said Maui Fire Services Chief Edward Taomoto.

While it was not raining at the time, fire crews reported seeing low cloud ceilings and fog down to the road when they responded to the crash.

Workers from Molokai Ranch opened locked gates so firefighters to access remote areas to search for the aircraft. Roads muddy from recent rainsmade it too difficult for fire trucks to pass so crews used small all-terrain vehicles to reach the crash site.

Firefighters extinguished areas near the site that were still smoldering from a fire that was apparently triggered by the crash.

Taomoto said firefighters and police would remove the bodies from the aircraft and that police would secure the scene until investigators from theFAA and National Transportation Safety Board arrive.

According to NTSB records, there have been two other recent fatal crashes on Molokai.

On Oct. 16, a Robinson helicopter registered to Stasys Aviation Leasing LLC and operated by Hawaii Pacific Aviation doing business asMauna Loa Helicopters crashed. The flight instructor and a commercial pilot receiving instruction were presumed to be fatally injured when debrisfrom the helicopter were observed floating on the water northwest of the shores of Molokai.

On Nov. 16, 2016, a helicopter piloted by prominent Hawaii attorney Gary Galiher crashed on Molokai, killing him and Oahu Realtor Keiko Kuroki.The wreckage was located about 1.3 miles mauka of 793 Kamehameha V Highway, about a half-mile north of Galiher’s property, on a remote slopethick with foliage and inaccessible by foot.

On Dec. 30, 2016, a Cessna 172 headed from Molokai to Oahu disappeared from radar and is presumed to have crashed into the ocean about fourmiles east of Ilio Point with three people aboard. Neither the wreckage nor the bodies of the three aboard — pilot Michael Childers and passengersJohn Mizuno and Whitney Thomas — have been located.

Star-Advertiser Maui stringer Wendy Osher contributed to this report.